The present disclosure generally relates to appliances, such as refrigerators, and more particularly relates to a powered drawer in an appliance. In one embodiment, a powered refrigerator drawer includes a drawer mounted within a refrigerator for movement between a closed position and an open position, and a driving mechanism connected to the drawer for driving the drawer between the closed and open positions, wherein the driving mechanism has an engaged state in which the drawer is power driven by the driving mechanism between the closed and open positions and a disengaged state in which the drawer is manually movable between the closed and opened positions. The powered drawer will be described with particular reference to this embodiment, but it is to be appreciated that it is also amenable to other like applications (e.g., used in another type of appliance).
By way of background, appliances, including refrigerators, sometimes include a drawer. A popular refrigerator configuration includes a bottom mounted freezer drawer that slides in and out for easy access. However, with the drawer being at the bottom of the refrigerator cabinet, bending and a significant pulling force are required for opening the drawer. This is met with some difficulty for certain people, such as elderly people. In addition, the drawer typically includes a gasket for sealing thereof when in its closed position. The sealing by the gasket causes an increased force to be needed for opening the drawer to overcome sealing of the gasket.
Others have sometimes attempted to overcome the foregoing problems and others by modifying the freezer drawer. For example, some freezer drawers employ a pivoting action to overcome the sealing of the gasket to allow the drawer to be more easily opened. Other freezer drawers are moved over a slight incline upward as the drawer is opened such that the drawer is biased to its fully closed position by gravitational force to facilitate full closure of the freezer drawer. Of course, such an incline, even when slight, causes yet further force to be applied to the drawer when opening it.